Bible in a Year (The Story) Podcast

Day 47: Set Apart, God-First

Today we read Exodus 30-31, Leviticus 22, and Psalm 115. This story in Exodus is the end of the Lord’s 7 speeches to Moses with echoes to creation, ending with the vital importance of honoring the Sabbath. There is mention in this story of how God can fill with wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and all kinds of skills to make artistic designs for the purpose of setting apart, making holy. In the story of Leviticus we are also ending the part of the story that discusses holiness, how God creates a way, the cost, and importance of setting apart and putting God first.
Resources:
Dr. Carmen Imes, Exodus Class - Exodus 1-40, (14 hours) Bible Project. https://bibleproject.com/classroom/overview/exodus-overview/ 
Credits:
Podcast music by Stockaudios from Pixabay. Speaker, Dr. Rachel Bodell. Podcast Sound Engineer, Alan Darling. Podcast Artwork, Will Gerard.

Day 46: Chosen, Becoming a Priest, Foreshadowing Jesus

Today we read Exodus 29, Leviticus 21, and Psalm 119:89-176. This story is about being chosen for something without earning or deserving it. This story is about foreshadowing the chosen one, Jesus.  This is a story about the holiness and the holy one in contrast to the gap, the alienation and dislocation we have from God without a God-designed sacrifice, atonement, and intercession of epic proportions. This is a story about process and guidelines, a threshold where God gives the holiest of sacrifices, the most perfect and He covers us, His blood redeems and He anoints us with this blessing of restoration, renewal, and vocation to bless others. Putting God on display, helping others navigate their way to their atonement and anointing, to pray in intercession on others behalf, and to give our best first to God and sharing what we have with those in need.
Resources:
Dr. Carmen Imes, Exodus Class - Exodus 1-40, (14 hours) Bible Project. https://bibleproject.com/classroom/overview/exodus-overview/ 
 
Dr. Carmen Imes, (May, 2021) Torah Tuesday Leviticus 21-22 https://youtu.be/HdwKBYTlkPI (7 minutes and 12 seconds)
 
Dr. Tim Mackie (July, 2020) Leviticus | The Bible in 5 (6 minutes) Bible Nerds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFA5Q3otg-I 
Credits:
Podcast music by Stockaudios from Pixabay. Speaker, Dr. Rachel Bodell. Podcast Sound Engineer, Alan Darling. Podcast Artwork, Will Gerard.

Day 45: A Portable Garden of Eden

Today we read Exodus 27-28, Leviticus 20, and Psalms 119:1-88. This story is a part of the Exodus 25-31 story which is filled with echoes of creation, Dr. Tim Mackie describes it like a portable Garden of Eden with a tabernacle, a tent, priestly garments and specific processes. There is both simplicity and royalty in this story. There is the ascribing of a tribe without primogeniture or experience (Levitical priests) and the recruitment of skilled craftsmen - both the novice and the skilled are needed in service to God as indicated in Genesis 1:26-28 and Genesis 2. This story discusses the construction and “putting on” of priestly garments which has echoes to Genesis 3 where God put a garment on Adam and Eve, both may be reflecting that we cannot cover our own sin of our own doing in our own way on our own recognizance. What, how, and who we are covered by is God’s decision, in God’s way. In this episode we also zoom out and review where we are in the Exodus story. In reading Psalms 119:1-88, we are given some heart, thought, and behavioral fidelity from King David as we continue to read Levitical laws given to the Israelites and the severity of not following God’s guidelines for living and representing Him well. 
Resources:
Dr. Carmen Imes, Exodus Class - Exodus 1-40, (14 hours) Bible Project. https://bibleproject.com/classroom/overview/exodus-overview/ 
Dr. Tim Mackie and Jon Collins, Exodus Summary (6 minutes and 33 seconds). Bible Project. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jH_aojNJM3E 
Credits:
Podcast music by Stockaudios from Pixabay. Speaker, Dr. Rachel Bodell. Podcast Sound Engineer, Alan Darling. Podcast Artwork, Will Gerard.

Day 44: Echoes of Creation in a Post-Rescue State

Today we read Exodus 25-26, Leviticus 19, and Psalms 79. This story echoes the creation story with numerous connections between the Garden of Eden (Gen 2) and the Tabernacle of the Temple (Exodus 25-31). It’s a post-rescue “get faith fit challenge,” a story of the people of Israel's restoration call to action. God acts in faith towards us and hints towards the faith for us He will provide in the placement of the two tablets. God does not destroy or deconstruct all of their cultures with the laws, but the Scripture, including this story was written for us and not to us, the laws are specifically seeking to address boundaries - do’s and don’ts - that reflect God’s immutable character better for the internal purpose of flourishing and the external purpose of putting God on display. The laws seek to restore and redeem from cultural alienation and dislocations from where they were (Egypt), where they are (nomadic, newly arrived at the base of Mount Sinai), and their neighbors around them (e.g. Canaanites). 
Resources:
Dr. Carmen Imes, Exodus Class - Exodus 1-40, (14 hours) Bible Project. https://bibleproject.com/classroom/overview/exodus-overview/ 
Credits:
Podcast music by Stockaudios from Pixabay. Speaker, Dr. Rachel Bodell. Podcast Sound Engineer, Alan Darling. Podcast Artwork, Will Gerard.

Day 43: Ratification and Radical Contrast

Today we read Exodus 24, Leviticus 17-18, and Psalms 78. This story is about new beginnings, a transformation story, a personal and intimate “I do,” and a radical shift in behavior that puts God on display and is in sharp contrast to neighboring cultures and past experiences.
Resources:
Dr. Carmen Imes, Exodus Class - Exodus 1-40, (14 hours) Bible Project. https://bibleproject.com/classroom/overview/exodus-overview/ 
Spoken Gospel (Leviticus 17-18)| Blood and Sex| Bible Study (Feb 20, 2020). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dlz3SWOkzBE&t=120s
Father Mike Schmitz, https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bible-in-a-year-with-fr-mike-schmitz/id1539568321 
 
Credits:
Podcast music by Stockaudios from Pixabay. Speaker, Dr. Rachel Bodell. Podcast Sound Engineer, Alan Darling. Podcast Artwork, Will Gerard.
 

Week 8: Weekend Review & Reflection Challenge

This is the weekend review and reflection challenge. We'll be back on Monday! If you need to catch up, the weekend gives you the chance to do that. Remember, you can start whenever, pause whenever, but never stop listening (or reading) the Bible!
Reflection challenge question: What is one or two things you learned this week from listening to the Bible that you can put into practice in your life today? 
Don’t forget, you can subscribe to our show wherever you are podcasting to get notifications to remind you on Monday that the show has been posted! Subscribing, rating, reviewing and sharing our show also helps to organically grow our channel and make it easier for people to find us! Thanks for listening and we look forward to being back with you next week.

Day 42: Day of Atonement

Today we read Exodus 23, Leviticus 16, and Psalms 77. This story is about justice and grace.
Resources:
Dr. Carmen Imes, Exodus Class - Exodus 1-40, (14 hours) Bible Project. https://bibleproject.com/classroom/overview/exodus-overview/ 
 
Dr. Tim Mackie and John Collins. Bible Project Podcast Episode 6. What is the Day of Atonement? https://bibleproject.com/podcast/what-day-atonement/ 
 
Credits:
Podcast music by Stockaudios from Pixabay. Speaker, Dr. Rachel Bodell. Podcast Sound Engineer, Alan Darling. Podcast Artwork, Will Gerard.

Day 41: Guidelines and Gaps

Today we read Exodus 21-22, Leviticus 15, and Psalms 76. This is a story about God’s guidelines towards more justice and care to represent Him well and flourish as individuals and in community. This is a story about the gap between where we have drifted to post-Genesis 2 and what is necessary to be a place where a holy God can dwell with us. Post-Genesis 2, God has responded to our alienation, dislocation, and drift into darkness with a flood, dispersion, fire, a family covenant and circumcision, an exodus with a passover, and now instruction, guidelines towards restoration. The story is not where God sends a flood, fire, or plagues, to start over and to free His people. In this story, God is starting right where the people are and leaning into the messiness and complexity of increasing justice and fairness, restoring the way His people rule, work, care, and subdue in the culture and community they have created. It’s a new type of project and it requires a careful look. The laws begin to highlight God’s character where He is seeking to reduce human exploitation and regulate less than ideal situations. God is seeking to protect the more vulnerable and limit the oppressive application of power. Yet, it is so interesting that God did not deconstruct and reconstruct the entire culture with more than 613 laws. Instead, He gives just the amount He wants where 80% are designed to lift up the poor, the widows, orphans, slaves, and women who were the most vulnerable in the patriarchal ancient culture of the Israelites. The laws are best understood in and through their relationship with the New Testament and what Jesus did and said in relation to the Old Testament. It’s so cool.
Resources:
Dr. Carmen Imes, Exodus Class - Exodus 1-40, (14 hours) Bible Project. https://bibleproject.com/classroom/overview/exodus-overview/ 
Dr. Carmen Imes (2019). Bearing God’s Name, Why Sinai Still Matters? InterVarsity Press
Credits:
Podcast music by Stockaudios from Pixabay. Speaker, Dr. Rachel Bodell. Podcast Sound Engineer, Alan Darling. Podcast Artwork, Will Gerard.
 

Day 40: Boundaries and Bearing God’s Name

Today we read Exodus 20, Leviticus 14, and Psalms 75. This part of Exodus is a story about boundaries that come after commitment. The law was given to the people of Israel after God had rescued them and commissioned them. The law also gives the people instructions on what it means to bear God’s name and represent Him well in the flourishing of their lives and the way others can see who God is in how they live their lives. This part of Leviticus continues to highlight our mortality and the risk of death in the presence of skin disease and mold. It results in separation and sacrifice. Then we also remember how the New Testament offers a testament of Jesus who in Luke 5:12-14 touches a man with skin disease who wanted to be clean and he was. Jesus chose to come into the world through childbirth and in Matthew, Mark, and Luke it re[ports how Jesus allowed a woman who was bleeding for years to touch Him and be healed, commending her faith in public and calling her daughter. God is claiming us as His and as His people, designed for that purpose, He knows the only place where we will thrive in creation and flourish in community is in representing Him.
Resources:
Dr. Carmen Imes, Exodus Class - Exodus 1-40, (14 hours) Bible Project. https://bibleproject.com/classroom/overview/exodus-overview/ 
 
Dr. Tim Mackie and John Collins. Image of God. Bible Project (6 minutes and 17 seconds) https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/image-of-god/ 
Dr. Carmen Imes (2019). Bearing God’s Name, Why Sinai Still Matters? InterVarsity Press
Credits:
Podcast music by Stockaudios from Pixabay. Speaker, Dr. Rachel Bodell. Podcast Sound Engineer, Alan Darling. Podcast Artwork, Will Gerard.
 

Day 39: Commissioned: A Personal Treasury of a King

Today we read Exodus 19, Leviticus 13, and Psalm 74. This is a story about being commissioned as a nation of Israel to God. It is the end of the wilderness and God calling the nation into a covenant. God is acknowledging that the whole earth is His, but that this nation is being called for Him to be a Kingdom of Priests and a Holy Nation. A new identity and vocation, the one that closely reflects Genesis 2 is now being given to the Hebrew people, who are now the nation of Israel. The verse that says we will be God’s treasured possession is a Hebrew word, segullah that even the other ancient languages knew to mean a personal treasury of a king with a special responsibility to represent the sovereignty. We make connections to the people of Israel and the New Testament where Peter explains the righteous remnant, those keeping God’s covenant, which include multiple ethnicities in a pagan society will be acquired as God’s treasure - so cool. We also continue to read in Leviticus how rituals are in place to differentiate the parts of humanity related to mortality and death separate from what God is - immortality and life itself.
Resources:
Dr. Carmen Imes, Exodus Class - Exodus 1-40, (14 hours) Bible Project. https://bibleproject.com/classroom/overview/exodus-overview/ 
 
Dr. Carmen Imes (2019). Bearing God’s Name, Why Sinai Still Matters? InterVarsity Press
Credits:
Podcast music by Stockaudios from Pixabay. Speaker, Dr. Rachel Bodell. Podcast Sound Engineer, Alan Darling. Podcast Artwork, Will Gerard.